7th
Heaven (season 5)
7th Heaven
is an American teen drama television series, created and produced by
Brenda Hampton, The central characters are the Reverend Eric Camden
(Stephen Collins), his wife Annie (Catherine Hicks), and their seven
children: Matt (Barry Watson), Mary (Jessica Biel), Lucy (Beverley
Mitchell), Simon (David Gallagher), Ruthie (Mackenzie Rosman) and the
twins, David (Lorenzo Brino) and Sam (Nikolas Brino).
The series is more than a TV show but a learning curve for most
viewers, each episode deals with a everyday life like lesson. The show
deals with a moral lesson or controversial theme that the family
handles either directly or indirectly. Some range from the traumatic
(e.g., Eric's sister came to visit and the children found out that she
was an alcoholic) to the somewhat trivial (e.g., in one episode, every
child acquired an addiction, with even Ruthie being addicted to gum).
Beyond the moral lesson in each show, there are also longer-running
story arcs, such as Eric's difficulty coping with the maturing of the
female members of the household. The
first episode involved Lucy's (lack of a) period. In the later
seasons, Mrs. Camden enters menopause and "baby" Ruthie needs a
training bra. The topics are usually approached from a socially and
politically conservative Protestant Christian point of view.
7th Heaven was the most watched TV series ever on the WB. It
holds the record for the WB's most watched hour at 12.5 million viewers,
on February 8, 1999; 19 of the WB's 20 most watched hours were from 7th
Heaven. On May 8, 2006, it was watched by 7.56 million viewers,
the highest rating for the WB since January 2005. When the show moved
to the CW, ratings dropped. Possible reasons for the decline include an
aired "Countdown to Goodbye" ad campaign for the last six months of
the 2005–06 season which promoted that season as the final season ever;
though the New CW Network announced the series' unexpected renewal, it
didn't promote the new season strongly
via billboards, bus stops, magazine or on-air commercials. Lastly, the
network moved 7th Heaven to Sunday nights; the returning
viewers may have thought the series was removed from the schedule. The
show had a season average of just 3.3 million on the new network,
losing 36% of the previous year's audience. It was the third most
watched scripted show on the CW. Overall; it was the seventh most
watched show.
